VEGETARIAN, non-resistant, free-thinker, in ethics a Christian; Orator apt at the rhine-stone rhythm of Ingersoll; Carnivorous, avenger, believer and pagan; Continent, promiscuous, changeable, treacherous, vain, Proud, with the pride that makes struggle a thing for laughter; With heart cored out by the worm of theatric despair; Wearing the coat of indifference to hide the shame of defeat; I, child of the abolitionist idealism -- A sort of Brand in a birth of half-and-half. What other thing could happen when I defended The patriot scamps who burned the court house, That Spoon River might have a new one, Than plead them guilty? When Kinsey Keene drove through The card-board mask of my life with a spear of light, What could I do but slink away, like the beast of myself Which I raised from a whelp, to a corner and growl. The pyramid of my life was nought but a dune, Barren and formless, spoiled at last by the storm. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CLOTHES by JEAN STARR UNTERMEYER DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI: 3. FULL MOON by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER THE SOCIETY UPON THE STANISLAUS by FRANCIS BRET HARTE ANNABEL LEE by EDGAR ALLAN POE ON THE DEATH OF THE REV. MR. GEORGE WHITEFIELD, 1770 by PHILLIS WHEATLEY ANIMAL TRANQUILITY AND DECAY; A SKETCH by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH |